Wednesday, 6 April 2011

(In present tense yes, as I've been watching it in bits during some days and right now as a matter of fact, while waiting to load the next ship. Some movies suffer from not being watched as a whole but this works well in shorter pieces, kind of like watching a series).

It is a musical and I'm not always all that Wohoo! about those, but in this case it works very well. The movie takes place in Moscow 1955. It is super saturated and stylized in every way!

The movie tells about the stilyagas; a subculture of somthine to be labelled as hipsters or beatniks in Soviet from the late forties until the early sixties. They were sporting an exaggerated fashionable, American influenced style which was of course not considered politically corrector in suitable with socialist values.

7 comments:

MM
said...

I love this movie! Maybe it is more understandable for those,who lived in USSR. my father used to be kind of stilyaga :) I knew some facts from his stories. But he passed away long time ago,and those stories gone with the wind somewhere :) So I was shocked in the best way ,when i saw this movie :) And the music (it isn`t written special for the movie .most of songs belongs to russian alternative bands) is well known for post-soviet youth :) It is perfect musical for me :)

MM : I think it's understandable for anyone who knows history. (Many people of course do not know as much about history as they perhaps should...) In Finland everyone was of course very aware of Soviet as it was next door, just as Russia is always of interest in some ways over here nowadays too. I heard that the songs were existing ones yes but that the lyrics were changed for the film?

As my grandmother was a seamstress, she used to sew clothes to my mother and aunt -- and even fixed the length of the school uniform in the 60's turning it into a mini skirt. Which was inappropriate, of course. Surprisingly my mother never got caught :)

Thank you, Ulrika, for that excellent movie reference. I was just going through some Estonian fashion magazines from the 50's to find suitable patterns for springtime (yes, it seems to be here finally, as well) and so, this film is a perfect ending for tonight!

Ha! I have stumbled on this movie unexpectedly and it was a very happy surprise. At first it was difficut to believe this kind of "subculture" existed in the 50's in Soviet Russia. The film itself was very vibrant and bright and fun. A really good watch for a Sunday evening.

Thank you so much for posting to this movie! I am from England and had never even heard about the Stilyagas of Russia, but was blown away by this fantastic film - such a good story, beautiful fashion and also great music. It's a shame over here it isn't even heard of, as I would love to buy the film. Thanks so much for introducing me to it! :)

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About life on the burlesque stage and behind my mac. I do design, pilates and red lips, enjoy wine and beautiful dresses, am fond of high heels and fancy hair, monkeys and seamen. I love rautalanka, my cats and my car. And most of all my little Dag and my Eddi. And I don't think anyone should take themselves too seriously!. This blog is about a little bit of everything actually, mainly the good stuff. To contact me send mail to: freelancersfashion@gmail.com but do note that I am not interested in taking "guest posts" or any other form of advertising anything for free. Read the "Please Note" section under the header first.